"W" Word Origins

Wilmer

Old English

From Old English willa (“mind, will, determination, purpose, desire, wish”) + mǣre (“famous”), from Proto-Germanic *Wiljamērijaz, from *wiljô + *mērijaz.

Wilmington

Origin

Meaning "Wilhelm's estate", from Wilhelm + Old English -ing (“belonging to”) + Old English tūn (“homestead, settlement”)

Wilmot

Origin

From a medieval diminutive form of the given name William.

wilmott

Origin

From a medieval diminutive form of the given name William.

Wilshire

Origin

Reduced variant of Wiltshire. The Los Angeles neighborhood is named for Wilshire Boulevard.

Wilson

Origin

From Will (short form of William) + -son.

wilt

German · 1600

Recorded from the late 1600s, likely an altered form of the older word welk ("to wither"), from Middle Dutch or Low German roots meaning "to become soft".

wilted

Origin

From wilt + the adjective-forming ending -ed.

Wilton

Origin

Named after Wilton, a town in Wiltshire, England, long famous for its carpet weaving.

Wiltshire

Origin

From the English county of Wiltshire, itself named after the town of Wilton.

wily

Middle English

From Middle English wily, built from wile (a crafty trick) + -y.

Wimbledon

Old English

From an Old English personal name plus dūn, "hill" — so roughly "somebody's hill".

wimmin

Origin

Eye dialect, also used as a feminist spelling of the word women in order to deliberately exclude the word men.

wimp

Origin · 1900

Possibly a shortening of "whimper"; popularised in the 20th century partly through comic and radio characters named Wimpy and Wimple.

wimpy

Origin

From wimp + -y.

win

Old English

From Old English winnan, "to labour, strive, fight" — the sense narrowed over time from general struggle to specifically coming out victorious.

wince

Origin

From Middle English wyncen, from Anglo-Norman winchir (compare Old French guenchir), from Frankish *wankjan, related to *winkijan (“to flex, bend”). See also German winken.

winch

Old English

From Old English winċe, related to the word "wink" through a shared root meaning "to bend or turn".

Winchester

Origin · 1800

The rifle is named after 19th-century American businessman Oliver Winchester; the computer hard disk term comes, in turn, from the rifle's name via an early IBM disk model nicknamed "Winchester".

wind

Old English

The "moving air" noun and the "twist/turn" verb both trace to Old English, but they come from different roots that happened to end up spelled the same in modern English.

wind-up

English

From the phrasal verb wind up, in the sense of tightening a spring and hence provoking or agitating a person.

windbag

Origin

From wind (in the sense of hot air) + bag — literally "a bag of wind".

windbreaker

Origin

Originally a trademarked brand name for this type of jacket, from wind + breaker.

windburn

Origin

From wind + burn.

windcheater

Origin

From wind + cheater.

Windermere

Old English

From an Old Norse personal name (Vínandr) plus Old English mere, "lake" — so roughly "Vínandr's lake".

windfall

Origin

Originally literal — fruit or wood "blown down" by the wind — before the figurative sense of unexpected good fortune developed.

winding

Middle English

The noun is derived from Middle English winding, windinge, wyndynge (“act of exposing something to the wind, airing, ventilating; act of winnowing (?)”), from winden, wynden (“to expose (something) to the air or wind, ventilate; to cause (someone) to be out of breath; to winnow (wheat); of an animal: to catch the scent of (someone or something)”) + -ing, -inge (suffix forming gerund nouns, and the present participle forms of verbs). The adjective is derived from the verb. The English word is analysable as wind (“to blow air through (a wind instrument or horn) to make a sound; to cause (someone) to become breathless; to winnow (food grain), etc.”) + -ing (suffix forming present participial adjectives and verbs, and nouns denoting an action or the embodiment of an action).

windjammer

Origin

From wind + jammer? The nautical senses were originally used contemptuously by sailors on steam vessels.

windlass

Origin

From Middle English wyndlas, wyndelas, wyndlasse, wyndelasse, probably an alteration (due to Middle English windel) of Middle English windas, wyndas, wyndace, from Anglo-Norman windase, windeis and Old Northern French windas (compare Old French guindas, Medieval Latin windasius, windasa), from Old Norse vindáss (“windlass”, literally “winding-pole”), from vinda (“to wind”) + áss (“pole”). Compare Icelandic vindilass.

windmill

Origin

A straightforward compound of wind + mill; the phrase "tilting at windmills" (fighting imaginary enemies) comes from Don Quixote, who attacked windmills believing them to be giants.

window

Old Norse

From Old Norse vindauga, literally "wind-eye" — an opening that let wind (and light) into a building, before glass panes were common.

windowsill

Origin

A compound of window + sill.

windpipe

Origin

A transparent compound of wind (air) + pipe.

windpump

Origin

From wind + pump.

windscreen

Origin

From wind + screen.

Windsor

Middle English

Inherited from Middle English Wyndelsore, from Old English Windlesōra (“Windsor”, literally “bank with a windlass, winch by the riverside”), from *windel ("reel, winch"; > Middle English windel (“reel, spool”)) + ōra (“bank, shore”). See windlass.

windstorm

Origin

From wind + storm.

windthrow

Origin

From wind + throw.

windward

Origin

From wind + the suffix -ward, meaning "in the direction of".

windy

Old English

From Old English windiġ, simply wind + the adjective suffix -y.

wine

Latin

From Old English wīn, ultimately from Latin vīnum — the same root that gives us "vine" and "vino".

Winehouse

Old English

From Old English wīnhūs, a straightforward compound of wine + house.

winery

Origin

From wine + the suffix -ry, denoting a place or trade.

winetasting

Origin

From wine + tasting.

Winfrey

Origin

From a medieval variant of the name Winfred.

wing

Old Norse

From Old Norse vængr, related to wind through an ancient root meaning "to blow" — a wing being, at root, something that catches the air.

wing it

English

From theatrical slang: an under-rehearsed actor learned lines in the wings of the stage, or was prompted from them.